IDNAround – Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, stated that the government plans to proceed with the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed train project after completing the Jakarta-Bandung high-speed train (KCJB) project.
Transportation observer from the Indonesian Transportation Society (MTI) Deddy Herlambang assessed the project will likely be carried out again by China, especially if the project starts from Bandung.
“If it’s from Bandung, it will definitely be built by China again because of the same facilities and infrastructure,” Deddy said in a written statement on Sunday, June 25, 2023.
He estimated that the cost of the bullet train project to Surabaya in East Java could be 5 to 7 times higher than the cost of the KCJB.
“If it is a hard loan, it’s better [for the government] to avoid it,” Deddy opined.
Previously, Luhut said he would make a report regarding extending the bullet train from Bandung to Surabaya to President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo after riding on KCJB on the latest trial run.
“We will report to the President about the preliminary study of [the high-speed train from] Bandung until Surabaya,” he said at Halim Station, East Jakarta, Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Luhut also said there would be a lot of savings in the Jakarta-Surabaya high-speed project due to downstream, so imports of diverse materials needed for the project will not happen. “I think this will make breakthroughs in this republic. So it will enable us to follow China, which is far more advanced than us. They also want to share their technology with us,” he said.
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